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John Kasich uses State of the State to reflect on the meaning of life

Updated March 7, 2018 at 12:42 PM;Posted March 6, 2018 at 10:05 PM

Ohio Governor John Kasich speaks during the Ohio State of the State address in the Fritsche Theater at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, Tuesday, March 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)(Paul Vernon)

WESTERVILLE, Ohio - It was appropriate for Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich to hold his final State of the State speech at Otterbein University, the small liberal arts college affiliated with the Methodist Church.

Not because Kasich was touting the revitalization of a small town like Westerville or singing the praises of higher education in the state.

It was appropriate because Kasich sounded a lot like a professor delivering a philosophy lecture on the meaning of life.

The term-limited governor didn't seem interested in doing a victory lap about his nearly eight years in office. And if it was supposed to be a prelude to a 2020 presidential run or a rebuke of Republican President Donald Trump, it was outside-the-box and nuanced.

At times he more resembled a minister giving a sermon about values and human compassion than the outgoing governor of the seventh-largest state in the nation.

Kasich departed from the usual policy-oriented - or even politically oriented - focus typically associated with the State of the State and spent the better part of his nearly hour-long address waxing poetic about philosophers of the past.

Instead of dropping the names of constituents or department heads, Kasich mentioned Aristotle, Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Nietzsche and Soren Kierkegaard. He talked about humanism and existentialism instead of capitalism and libertarianism.

And instead of critiquing the government's performance, he critiqued the divisive culture in a number of facets of life - business, media, Hollywood and religion - and mused on the theory of life.

"I've concluded that human reason is imperfect," Kasich said. "It just doesn't work. It can only take us so far from whence the winds of change can move us and we can find ourselves lost. You know for many years now - 30 or 40 years - I've been studying and thinking and working to find my purpose."

But amid his analysis - a possible indictment on the current political climate caused by Trump - Kasich tried to give a message of hope as he begins the march toward his exit from office.

"What it really gets down to is we really need to live a life - all of us - a little bigger than ourselves," Kasich said. "Live a life a little bigger than ourselves."

Kasich said it was important to look toward the future, pointing to the high school student survivors of the shooting in Parkland, Fla., who have taken a lead in demonstrating and demanding change since the mass shooting that left 17 dead.

"Those students are incredible down there," Kasich said. "And how about those teachers, some of whom died because they put themselves in front of the gunman. Oh, those kids are etched in our minds forever. They're going to be great leaders tomorrow."

Kasich's speech wasn't completely devoid of policy. He announced a new state park in Muskingum and Morgan counties named after Jesse Owens, a decrease in opioid prescriptions and deaths, praised criminal justice reform that's led to the lowest entry into state prisons in 27 years, said he was proud of a decrease in the uninsured rate and hailed the efforts to combat human trafficking.

He said resoundingly that the state had rebounded since he took office in 2011.

"Ohio is back and Ohio is strong again, ladies and gentlemen," Kasich said.

But mostly, Kasich reflected on what he thought was the necessary attitude to continue to improve Ohio and the world at large.

"In this job, I've just done everything that I could do. I've done my best," Kasich said. "We have to run through the tape. Make no mistake about it. We're not quitting until we turn off the lights because we've got so many things to do."

Democratic lawmakers in their response said they appreciated the governor's collegial manner and hopeful words, but pushed back on Kasich's assertion that Ohio was better off - pointing to cuts to education and social services, inaction on issues like gun control and Ohio's low rankings in several economic, education and quality of life ratings.

"This was a little bit different," said House Minority Leader Fred Strahorn, a Democrat from Dayton. "I think we all heard some very uplifting commentary and inspiring sort of words, and I thought in the beginning that that was a buildup to some more complicated policy issues like common sense gun safety issues ... and that just did not happen."

Kasich also continued the tradition he started in 2012 of handing out the Governor's Courage Awards to people who exemplify selflessness. This year's winners included Nina Schubert, a freshman at Kent State University who founded the Nightingale Project to help others cope with mental illness; Mikah Frye, a 10-year-old who used $300 from his grandmother for an Xbox to buy blankets for the homeless; and Chris Hole, a hospice nurse who administered life-saving care to wounded concertgoers during an October mass shooting in Las Vegas where a gunman killed 58 people.